Strategy and Fighting the Fewest Battles

Nothing will have a bigger impact on a contractors business over the next decade than putting in a very rigorous process for strategy development and execution.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

The industry is changing rapidly due to technology, a massive shortage of management talent as well as major trends in project delivery and geographic expansion.  

Leadership Tools: Strategic Planning. A General does not plan how to win every battle; they plan how few battles they need to fight to win the war.

Strategic decisions along with the operating rhythms and the feedback mechanisms that ensure execution are the most highly leveraged decisions in the business. 

This is an area where an experienced 3rd party can add significant value.  Find someone that resonates with your team and has experience relevant to your company.  Change the facilitator every few years for fresh ideas. Unless they are really bad don’t change them every year so you have some continuity.  You might consider overlapping facilitators having the outgoing facilitator sit in on your side of the table providing additional continuity.  

Consider bringing in some of your key customers, vendors and subcontractors as part of your strategic planning process.  Whatever you do; don’t underestimate the value of this process.   

Learn More




Change Management Workflow (From Identification-to-Payment)
For contractors to manage changes effectively, they must understand the entire change management workflow up through the project owner’s approval and payment process.
Good or Bad is Just Perception
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” - William Shakespeare It’s too easy to frame things that happen as good or bad. Try to frame things simply as events and accept that you can choose to perceive them however you want.
A Typical Project - Understanding Cash Flow at the Company Level
As contractors face many opportunities in the market it is important to keep cash flow management top-of-mind. Growth eats cash and just a few hiccups in execution can put just about any contractor in a very bad position.